After Broadway big shots rejected his first effort, a founder of the Village People will try again to launch a musical about the ’70s pop group, whose members were recruited in NYC.Can't Stop Productions Inc./Photo

Though shot several years ago, this slice-of-life pic is coming out at an opportune moment, set as it is in a heat-wave-fried New York City. But it fails to channel those waves shimmering off the pavement into sexual energy — a shame, given that that’s the central topic.

Lee Pace, Thomas Sadoski, Paz de la Huerta, Justin Kirk and Jennifer Tilly pass through in various sketches; younger actors Condola Rashad and Ben Levin are the virginal pair at the heart of the film, which discreetly fades to black each time two people actually come together.

There’s an argument to be made that sex scenes, done to death, are best left to the imagination — but only if they’re replaced by something more interesting. In “30 Beats,” the conversational foreplay is hopelessly flaccid.